2022-08-17 Meeting notes

5 min

Review Action Items from last meeting

@Dave Ormsbee (Axim)

• Basic setup of:

  • Discourse Category

  • GitHub Project

  • GitHub Repo for Issues

• Project organization?

• Followup: Make sure everyone here has repo write access

• Dave has to talk to Ned about setting up project actions

20 min

Introduction to Backstage and how it could be used

@Feanil Patel

• Spotify tool to catalog software related things

• Single pane of glass to see all software

• Centered around ownership

• A lot of our ownership models come from Spotify anyway

• https://backstage.openedx.org is a deployed version that’s currently running

  • has some of our existing projects

  • by default, you see the things you own or teams that you’re on own

• Component has pointers to source, docs, relations

• Defined in catalog file in version control, e.g. openedx-events/catalog-info.yaml at main · openedx/openedx-events (note: file must be .yaml, not .yml)

• Annotations

  • Currently has a custom openedx.org/arch-interest-groups entry, but not currently displayed in the UI.

  • We should start adding this information

• Robert Q: How does this relate to owners list?

  • You don’t have to be an owner to be interested in changes.

    • Q: Should all owners be in this list?

      • Not currently planned, but possible for the future.

        • Q: Should people making ADRs reach out to both owners and these arch group people.

          • We should work through this and see how it goes.

• Ned Q: String separated list?

  • Feanil: Haven’t figured out how to add new schema types in Backstage config yet, so currently that way to pass validation.

• Andy: This allows us to annotate repos of code, not concepts.

  • Can make tags, can make other component types that aren’t just generic Code. Can add “concepts”, even if it’s not backed by code. A little more complicated, but possible.

    • Andy examples: LTI

• A lot of what Backstage is being used for is maintainership

• Robert Q: Is repo the smallest code component?

  • Feanil: You can make Django app level types and put metadata in there if desired

  • Some standard types have plugin support

• Robert Q: How much are you doing in Backstage directly vs. catalog files

  • Right now, most of the data is in catalog files. The only Backstage config right now is to pull things from the openedx org.

• David Q: 2U Backstage instance could point to all these?

  • Yes

• Deployments could also be a component.

• Dave Q: How would people contribute?

  • GitHub - openedx/openedx-backstage: The openedx instance of Backstage for helping maintainers is where it’s built

  • Add to the plugins folder (see Backstage docs)

  • Make a PR, tag Feanil or Ed

  • Ned Q: How would this interact with 2U Backstage, why is plugins entry blank?

    • Current customizations are in the packages/backend/src/plugins (catalog.ts)

    • (this is calling a plugin with specific params, not making a new one)

• Robert Q: The idea of other Backstage instances–to what extent are we supporting that workflow?

  • If it is obvious and clear at the moment of a change, we’ll choose the one that is more open. If there’s only one clear way to do it and supporting other companies is complicated, then tCRIL is not going to spend a lot of time researching.

    • Should have an annotation for arch interest around backstage as well

• Hooking this up to 2U’s instance (David J.)

  • People have to go through a set of steps to publish to it. Can make code changes, see @David Joy (Deactivated)

• Talk to @Feanil Patel about Backstage questions if you want to develop for it.

20 min

Evangelizing OEP-56 and this group (+ getting early feedback?)

@Dave Ormsbee (Axim)

[Andy] putting a reminder here to talk about cosmonauts LTI example

• Came up as an example of an ad hoc thing that is relevant to OEP-56

• OpenCraft also works on it

• Interesting example of something this group should be able to do, or replace with a Backstage instance.

• eduNEXT: Same problem with filters

• Peter: MIT contracted OpenCraft for Library Blockstore LTI work (as an LTI provider).

• Robert Q: Should we have a hashing-out space to discuss components before we add them to Backstage, or just do things via code directly?

  • Either is fine.

  • Having a Scratch pad

    • Here is a scratch pad to get that data: Arch Interest Mapping

(rest of time)

Backlog brainstorming?